Bears Blast Eldred 50-0

Wed, 11/29/2017 - 9:46am

By

TED WADDELL

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — It must have been the pink socks.

On Saturday, October 28, the home team Bears of Tri-Valley (3-6) took on the Eldred Yellow Jackets football squad (0-9) in their final game of the season. While both teams don’t really have great win/loss records, they gave it their best shot. And when you get right down to it where the nitty-gritty lives, who could ask for anything more?

Tri-Valley’s Chase Botsford had quite the afternoon for himself, as he rushed for a total of 147 yards including four TD runs of 19, 4, 68 and 20 yards. Also posting scoring runs were teammates Dustin Rogers (13 yards), Julius Colon (4) and Ethan Shaver (34). Tri-Valley’s Drew Hartman added several two-point conversion runs, but subsequent PATs came up short.

The winless Yellow Jackets were restrained by a fired-up Bears defense to a miserly 10 yards rushing and 37 aerial yards.

In the closing minutes of the game, both squads exchanged back-to-back fumble recoveries, and at the 2:08 mark Shaver scored the Bears’ final TD.

Early in the game, Eldred’s star running back Kobe Williams suffered a broken leg, and it took a while for his team to pick up the pace in the wake of the bone-snapping injury.

“It’s our first year back in football… they battled,” said Steve Barone, coach of the rebuilt Eldred football program.

Eldred faced a shortfall in players signing up this season, so a trio of girls decided to suit up to give the team sufficient gridiron numbers.

Marina Schneider (#15) is a 14-year-old ninth-grade linebacker. What’s it like for a young lady to play in a sport traditionally dominated by the opposite gender?

“It’s tough, but we’re all pretty tough. They hit us hard, and we hit them harder,” replied Schneider.

Kassandra Weatherly (#28) decided to put on a set of shoulder pads in addition to her soccer shin guards this year. “We were short on numbers, and we joined because we’re also very athletic. Without us, we wouldn’t have had a football team,” said the 17-year-old senior kicker.

Alaina Gaughan (#88) is also on Eldred’s soccer team, and takes to the football field as her squad’s punter.

“I’ve always loved playing football since I was a little kid, [but] playing for real… I didn’t think it was ever going to happen,” said the17-year-old 12th grader.

Bears coach Greg Botsford said this season was the first step on the road to next year. “We really focused on putting on a good performance out there.”

Seventeen-year-old senior Chase Botsford is a running back for the Bears. “We went out and executed… the offensive line did a great job blocking, and we were the better team today.”

Tri-Valley’s 16-year-old junior QB Drew Hartman plays safety on defense, and had three picks in the victory over Eldred. “It was kind of exciting, it was a big win… we pushed the ball on offense and just kept going.”

Back to the socks: The home team took to the field wearing bright pink socks in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Headed for six! Bears’ Chase Botsford romped into the end zone as he scored Tri-Valley’s 1st TD.